Stargate Universe: Continuation
by Obrusnine
Summary: Continued from the point that Gauntlet ended, this documents the rest of the undisclosed adventures of the Universe team as I imagine. It also shows you what Destiny can do when it reaches it's full potential in later chapters.
1. E1: Prolouge: To Sleep

**I don't know about all of you, but I was completely unsatisfied that they canceled Stargate Universe just as it was getting good, so... I'm going to write what I think happened. :D**

**This takes place from the moment Stargate Universe: Gauntlet ended.**

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><p><strong>Stargate Universe: Continuation<strong>

**Episode One: Abducted**

**Prologue: To Sleep**

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><p><em>Previously on Stargate Universe<em>

_An emergency riles up Destiny's crew, the drones have blocked off access to every Stargate in the Galaxy. After trying their hardest and refilling the Destiny's power using a Blue Supergiant, Dr. Park is blinded and the Destiny crew is left with only one option… to enter stasis in the stasis pods for three years or more and use the ship to make an FTL jump to the next galaxy. With this as their only remaining option, they say their goodbyes and climb into their stasis pods. Only time would tell what their Destiny was… until now._

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><p><em>Present Day<em>

Eli's smile suddenly became a frown and he turned away from the scene of FTL outside of the window. He quickly realized how stupid he had been being up until this point. He had two weeks to figure out how to fix the one pod left, or he would have to disable the life support... and let himself die.

He ran back to the control interface room, in complete darkness, and immediately booted up one of the shut-down terminals. He started thinking up solutions to the problem. But every time he thought he was on the verge of a solution, he would be wrong.

Deciding that this pursuit was fruitless, he took the short walk to the stasis chambers and walked along the rows as the empty eyes of his crewmates stared out at him. Eventually, he reached the end and started to check out the inside. He had decided that in order to fix it, he would have to identify exactly was the problem was in the first place.

He could find no problems on the external hardware inside the pod. It all seemed just fine. It looked like the ability for the pod to enter stasis was fine, but there was a problem that prevented it from starting.

Eli stepped out again and stepped up to the terminal. He began running power through each individual conduit and power cable in the pod. Just as he had thought, several of them were damaged. He could get access to the wires and run a few bypasses, but there were far too many damaged wires. He guessed that the weak wiring had blown out when they had tried to turn it on.

Grabbing a set of tools from a nearby room, he returned and started to peel off the walls inside the pod. But as he pulled off the first piece, he instantly knew that there was no hope of repairing it. The wires inside were shredded to bits and in some places burned beyond recognition. They needed to be replaced, but he had no idea what exactly he could replace them with.

Eli inspected them more closely and found that he knew the material with which most of these wires were made of. They had brought a bunch of raw materials and such when they had returned from Novus, and he knew plausible substitutes for a lot of them. Then he encountered a different type of wire that was constructed with completely different materials, and he didn't know what they were for.

He scrunched up his nose and stepped out of the pod to bring the one thousand seven hundred page manual up on the terminal. He tried to skim over it, but he knew that he would never be able to recognize what the wires were for doing that. He needed context, which he would not get by skimming. Having completed his initial inspection of the pod, he downloaded the manual onto his tablet and started to read as he walked over to the mess hall with the tablet as his only light.

He decided that he would need to write a program that would make the lights to follow him around so that he could see where he was going. With such a time-critical objective, he would need to quickly navigate around.

After he reached the mess hall, he sat at the table and popped open one of the containers and ate as he read. He guessed he still couldn't help the fact that he ate when he was bored. Eventually, he stopped eating as he read but still sat there staring intensely at the tablet.

Several hours passed as he sat there reading and he just began to get more infuriated with every page that the explanation for the unusual wires was not on. Eventually, he took a deep breath and stood up. Leaving the tablet behind, he walked to the bridge and entered the password before stepping inside. Deciding there was nothing to lose; he sat in the Captain's chair and sat back.

It was actually quite comfortable and gave him a nice place to think. In nearly nine hours, he had only gotten through one hundred and fifty pages of the complicated text that was the manual. At this rate, he knew that it could take nearly all of the time he had to find what he needed in there. He could only think of one thing that could help, or rather a person. He needed Ginn.

Eli keyed in a few things using the keyboard mounted onto the arm of the chair. The battle displays dropped down but instead of that, he could do whatever he wanted with Destiny's systems. With a little perusing, he found the Quarantine zone within Destiny's systems. The two files that represented Amanda Perry and Ginn were still there.

The problem was that once Quarantined, Destiny didn't allow the removal of files from that Quarantine. He imagined that there was some kind of method to it, but even more than year on-board the ship hadn't made anybody a master on the extremely complex systems. He had only one idea for how to get them out of there, and he knew it could kill him or get him stuck inside of Destiny's systems permanently.

He would need to sit in the chair and upload his consciousness to the ship and start removing protocols that constructed the Quarantine zone of the system. It would take him several months of constant work to do the same thing in the real world, but inside the system it was different, he would be able to instantly see the connections between files and protocols and know which ones to remove and which ones to leave.

Only Rush had ever uploaded his consciousness to the system, and he had almost been stuck there permanently. Eli wasn't all that familiar with the chair other than its basic functioning, but he trusted Rush's program for the most part. After all, the man had used it himself.

He knew he didn't have any time to waste either, as every second was precious.

Before he stepped out of the chair however, he quickly rigged the lights to follow him around and predict his course so that he could see ahead. It wasn't an extremely complicated program, but it still took him fifteen minutes to write and another fifteen to get Destiny to accept it.

After that, he hopped up and headed for the chair room without delay.

Before launching the process, he went over Rush's programs and made a few alterations to increase safety. He could get out of the system at any time by just thinking about it now. After that, he went over the power requirements for the chair to make sure that it didn't cut into the power needed for the jump. It wouldn't, but it would take a day out of his life support to get in and get out.

Finally concluding he was ready, he ran the necessary programs and sat in the chair. The arm locks slammed shut, the bolts swung into place, and they spun until they came in contact with his head. At first, there was an intense pain, and then there was nothing.

Suddenly, the world was black… nothing… Until it lit up and lines of code and running programs flashed all over the place.

"Wow…" He said to himself. He walked through it all, inspecting everything. It was here that he realized he had no idea how to navigate the system. Suddenly, the computer code and other things retreated and he was in one of Destiny's hallways. He could see the codes along the walls, and turned around.

He saw himself strapped into the neural interface chair unmoving.

"This is creepy… but awesome at the same time…" He whispered. He turned away. He started walking through the hallways. "But where is the server where the Quarantine is held?"

Just as soon as he asked himself that, everything before him seemed to fly by and he was suddenly in a completely different part of the ship. He was standing before a large computer with a terminal mounted against it. Nervously, he reached out and touched it.

As he did this, he suddenly was the computer. He could see all of the programs and they cooperated with his will. He started bringing up the protocols that prevented the removal of files from Quarantine and he started removing them with solutions he thought up almost instantly. It was like his brain was in overdrive, but he knew that it was just that fact that he was basically a computer now.

It took hours, but eventually the protocols were down, and he entered the Quarantine system himself.

Suddenly, he was standing in a forest. He looked around, and could see nothing other than trees and the path before him. He tried walking, but it was as if he made no progress.

"Ginn!" He called. But there was no answer. Panicking he started to run, but after several minutes he had still gotten nowhere. "What is going on…?"

"Eli? Is that you?" Came a feminine voice from behind him. He flipped around and found Ginn standing there.

"Yes!" He said. He ran up to her and tried to grab her but phased right through.

"Sorry, this simulation program apparently doesn't provide full reality contact…" Ginn said. "Not that there's much I can do about it…"

"That doesn't matter… Let's just get the hell out of here… okay?" Eli asked.

"I would like nothing more than to do that, to be with you Eli… but something happened to Amanda Perry's program when you transferred us here. A part of her became corrupted. She's fused our programs together so that you can't bring one of us out with the other, and she's become a crazy…" Ginn started to say. Suddenly, the sky above them started darkening. "Oh great… Come on, I created a small partition where she can't access."

Suddenly, he was in a small closet. A lamp was in the middle and Ginn was standing across from him.

"How are you doing that?" Eli asked.

"Still haven't quite figured out the whole being a computer thing?" She asked. Eli nodded. "Wait a second Eli, how did you get here? Are you…?"

"No, no, nothing like that." He answered. "I'm using the chair. I came here because I needed your help."

"With what?" She asked.

"The rest of the crew is in stasis, one of the pods is broken. I've got two weeks to fix it or I have to shut off the life support and die from asphyxiation. Fun stuff…" Eli said. "I need someone inside the computer who can read the entire manual in seconds and feed me relevant information."

"Why would you need to do that?" Ginn asked. "What's going on there?"

"It would take too long to explain…" Eli said. "When we get back, you can go over the ships logs yourself."

"But I told you Eli, I can't leave without bringing her with me. If we did that, she would sabotage the ship from the inside out…" Ginn said.

"Rush's girlfriend turning into an evil psychotic bitch?" Eli wondered. "Why does that not surprise me?"

Ginn shrugged.

"Anyways… I'm the only one who can get you two out of here. I removed all of the protocols that would prevent me from taking your files out of the system..." Eli said. "If we could somehow sever the programming link keeping you two fused, then I could just pull you out and leave her in here."

"How would you tell the difference between us?" Ginn asked.

"You said Perry's program got corrupted when it went in here, it should be easy to tell the difference between you two because her file will have a ton of junk data attached." Eli said.

"It's as good a plan as any, but you can't do that from in here. You have to go back to the real world." Ginn replied.

"I know… I'll see you in a bit." Eli said. He closed his eyes and thought about the real world, and then opened them. Nothing happened. "What the?"

"What is it?" Ginn asked.

"I just ran the abort to get out of here, it didn't work." He replied. "I made an exception so that my data can come and go from the Quarantine zone as much as I want, so it can't be that. Something has to be stopping me from leaving."

"Oh no, it's Perry." Ginn said. "I'll have to distract her so that you can escape."

"But if you two are close together in here, your files parts will be too hard to distinguish with that programming link between you two. If my calculations are wrong, I could delete you instead of the link." Eli said.

"Don't worry; your math is never wrong." She said. "Just don't miss the context. Now I'm going to disappear, wait five seconds and then go!"

Eli nodded and she disappeared. He counted to five and then thought about the real world. The next second, he woke up in the chair and got up. Knowing he didn't have much time, as Perry would now feel that Ginn was in conflict with her and would try to gain control of the system enough to delete her which was easier now thanks to Eli's reworked protocols, he ran as fast as he could to the bridge.

He tried to enter the password with his hand shaking. He messed up the first time and had to start over. This time, he managed it and the bridge doors opened up with a press of a button.

He ran onto the bridge and jumped into the Captain's chair. He quickly brought up the screens and accessed the quarantine zone. As Eli had predicted, they were so close within the system, he couldn't distinguish their code from one another. They appeared to be one complete file instead of two separate ones.

Quickly, he started analyzing the code for the errors that would indicate that the section was the program link. He found the dividing line between the two quickly, but still had problems finding the code that represented the programming link. He quickly ran some equations through his head that helped him locate the section of code that he was looking for.

Having found it, he started analyzing for points where it didn't match up with the rest of the code. This would be the two points at which it connected to the files that represented Ginn and Perry. If he was wrong, he could permanently delete something important about them however small.

Having located the two points, he took a deep breath, and deleted the code. It looked alright; the two files were now separate entities. He released his breath and sat back in relief. After that, he stretched his fingers out and analyzed the two files. He easily identified the junk data that represented corruption and identified Perry's file. The corrupted bits could be reconstructed as far as Eli knew, but that wasn't what worried him right now.

He transferred Ginn out of Quarantine and into Destiny's main systems.

"Ginn?" He called. There was no answer. "Ginn!"

"I'm right here Eli." She said as she was suddenly standing right next to him.

"Good, and that's how I want to keep it this time." Eli said. But something struck him as off about his own words, as if he didn't believe what he was saying himself. He put this doubt out of his mind. "After all that though, I need some sleep. So we'll talk later while you read the manual for the stasis pods."

"Already done." Ginn said.

"Alright then, do whatever you want while I get some sleep." Eli said. He started to step off the bridge. "Glad to have you back…"

As he stepped off the bridge, he couldn't help feeling that he was yet again lying to her.

The next morning, he showered with Ginn watching him.

"You know that's kind of creepy right?" Eli asked.

"I've already seen it." She said smirking.

"Well I don't mind." He replied.

"Nice save." She answered.

After he was done and dressed he stepped back into the Stasis Pod hallway and started to inspect the stasis pod. He started pointing to wires as Ginn "stood" next to him.

"Okay these wires I recognize…" Eli said picking one of them up and showing it to Ginn. "They seem to be power wires made out of hardened Palladium and a combination of other materials to make sure it lasts a very long time. The insulation can easily be replaced with whatever other kinds we have on board, but we have plenty of hardened Palladium that I could cut into wires as well as materials that could easily substitute for anything we don't have…"

"So you've gotten better with building stuff I see?" Ginn asked.

"I've been spending too much time with Brody obviously." Eli said. "Although honestly, any time with Brody is a bit too much if you ask me…"

He grinned.

"Anyways…" He continued picking up part of the wire he didn't recognize. "…this is what I'm really worried about. I have no idea what these are for or what their made of."

"They are for the transfer of consciousness to the storage device above the pod. The manual doesn't mention what material their made of though, but this appears to be because some of it has been corrupted." Ginn said.

"Oh that's just perfect." Eli replied. "So I know what they're for, but I have no idea what they're made of."

Eli spent the next week constructing the wires that he could make himself. After constructing them, he installed them in the pod over the damaged areas. When he was done, he stepped out and up the pod terminal.

"Finally done…" He said. "Now let's see if these fixes work…"

He powered on the pod and it seemed to maintain power for a few seconds. Been then the wires started sparking and he powered it off.

"Damn it!" He said slamming his fist into the terminal. "Why didn't that work?"

"I don't think it can." Ginn said. "I observed the power grid when you did that, it appears power cables on the ships surface took damage during the drone kamikaze attack. The electricity running into this pod is extremely unstable."

"Great, and because the ship is in FTL… I can't go onto the surface to fix them!" Eli said. "Hell, even if I could, I still don't have replacements for the consciousness transfer wires…"

"The pod appears to be completely irreparable…" Ginn said. "I'm sorry Eli…"

"It's not your fault." Eli said. "But I don't think I'll ever be able to store my body in this pod…"

"I know…" Ginn said.

"Wait a second." Eli said grinning as he stood up. "I don't need to store my body in this pod! I've been going about this all wrong!"

"What do you mean Eli?" Ginn asked. "Without a pod to store your body in, there's nowhere for you to go."

"Look, why don't I just jump in a pod with someone else?" Eli asked.

"Because the storage devices above the pods only support one at a time." Ginn said. "Your body could probably survive it, but your mind wouldn't have anywhere to go."

"Exactly, but that means all I need is another intact consciousness storage device." Eli said grinning. "We've already tested the one for this pod, it's completely intact!"

"I see where you're going with this Eli… but the problem is that there's no way to put your body into one and then send your consciousness into another. There's no wiring between them, and there's no way to get more wire to interconnect them." Ginn said.

"What is this… the middle ages? Who needs wires; wireless is the way to go." Eli said. "I can take the wireless receivers from the shuttle and rig them onto the consciousness devices. If they can transfer a large amount of telemetry data and such, it should be able to transfer a consciousness, albeit a bit slowly."

"That should work." Ginn said. "Turns out you are a genius."

"Math boy surpasses his own definition…" Eli said humorously.

"What?" Ginn asked.

"Um… nothing." Eli said. "Let's go grab those receivers."

It took two more days, but eventually, the wireless receivers were rigged up and ready to go… with one on the broken pod's, and one on Colonel Young's. Eli spent the third day writing the needed program that would grab one of the two consciousness's and split them between the two storage devices.

That night, he walked into the pod room and loaded up the program onto Colonel Young's pod. After that, he went to the terminal and started running the simulations for the power he would need to shut off and then turn back on a pod. Just as he had worried, it was going to cut into the power for the jump. He had taken too long.

"Damn it…" Eli said to himself sitting down against the walls.

"I'm sorry Eli…" Ginn said. "What are you going to do?"

"I'm not sure." Eli said. "Die I guess…"

"You could upload your consciousness to Destiny…" Ginn said. "You're going to die anyways; it wouldn't make much of a difference."

"Well isn't that pleasant… but your right." Eli said. He stood up and started heading for the chair room. He readied everything and stood looking at the chair and looking at himself for what would be the last time… then he had an idea. "I'm not going to die…"

"What is it Eli?" Ginn asked.

"I'm not going to die!" Eli said. A memory came back to him.

_Rush and him were on the bridge and Eli was scanning through inactivated systems. He found one that had files on it and pulled open the files. It was named Kinetic Energy Absorption._

"_Uh… Rush, I think I've got something here." Eli said._

"_What is it? I've got other more important things to work on then your discoveries Eli…" Rush said as he tapped a few keys on the captain's chair._

"_But this could be important. It looks like we have another way of recharging other than flying into a star; never know what that could come in handy." Eli replied._

"_Fine, what is it?" Rush asked. Lifting his glasses off and looking at Eli._

"_It's called Kinetic Energy Absorption. It works by taking the energy we get from being in FTL, and converting it into electricity." Eli said._

"_Fine, we'll look into it later. Get back to work running those diagnostics…" _

They had looked into it later. The system still worked. The problem was that the power it generated was insignificant. One burst from a four hour FTL jump was barely enough to power a flashlight for 24 hours.

But that wasn't the point. Eli knew that the amount that the pod was cutting into the power for the jump was insignificant, just as insignificant as the Kinetic Energy Absorption system. Also, for a three year FTL jump, it would get to at least one percent of their total power reserves before they dropped out, so it may give them just a bit longer in FTL if they needed it.

Either way, he started running for the bridge.

"Eli, what's going on?" Ginn asked after him.

"There's a system that can generate the small amount of power I need!" Eli yelled as he ran. "It's called Kinetic Energy Absorption!"

"Good thing you realized that." Ginn said. She was just floating alongside him as he ran.

Eventually, he reached the bridge and flipped on the system after some computer searching. After that, he ran back to the stasis pod room and powered down Young's pod without further ado.

"Eli…?" Young asked as he stepped out of the pod. "Has it been three years already?"

"No." Eli said.

"Then what did you get me out for?" Young asked.

"There's no time to explain, we need to get back in quick. I'm not sure how that will affect you, but we don't have time to wait." Eli said.

"We?" Young asked.

"No time to explain! Just get in!" Eli urged. Young stepped back into the pod. "Ginn! Do it!"

Eli jumped into the pod after Young, the door lowered, and everything went black.


	2. E1: Part 1: Awakening

**Thanks for reviewing, the replies for all reviews will always be in the reader review section at the bottom of every chapter. Also, the more you review the faster and more I write. So keep on keeping on. As in, keep reviewing this if you want more chapters.**

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><p><strong>Stargate Universe: Continuation<strong>

**Episode One: Abducted**

**Part 1: Awakening**

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><p>Suddenly, Eli returned to consciousness. He could feel the Colonel next to him and they both fell out of the stasis chamber. For a few moments, Eli could not move. Then, he finally issued a groan, his vision sharpened and he was able to move his legs.<p>

He stood up, and looked next to him, the Colonel wasn't getting up. Eli got on his knees and shook him saying, "Hey, get up."

When the colonel didn't respond, Eli checked his pulse. He was alive; but he was probably just suffering the effect of getting in so soon after getting out of the stasis chamber. Eli on the other hand was up, and he was rubbing his head with gusto, for it felt like someone had hit it with a frying pan.

Then, something came to him. All of the stasis pods were commanded to open at the moment Destiny dropped out of FTL near a planet with a gate on it. But as far as Eli could see, he and the Colonel were the only ones that had been awakened.

_Oh no, that can only mean something bad. _Eli thought. He shook the colonel again, and he issued a groan.

"Hey, welcome back to the world of the living." Eli said as he helped Young stand up.

"Ugh... thanks. I can assume I was in a lot longer than last time; that was a pretty harsh effect." Young said.

"Yea, that's what I'm thinking." Eli said. "Extended time in the stasis chamber is bound to cause some negative effects. But what's bothering me is that it's looking like we're the only one's Destiny has woken up."

"Why?" Young asked as he stood up straight and let go of Eli.

"I don't know, I would need to check it out in the control room." Eli said. "Ginn!"

"Who are you talking to?" Young asked.

"I released Ginn from Quarantine, she helped me come up with the solution I needed." Eli said.

"I don't need to know anymore. Has she appeared yet?" Young said.

"No… and that makes me more worried." Eli said.

"Just go ahead to the control room then and see what the hell is going on. I'll be right behind you."

"Okay, I'll see you there." Eli replied.

Eli left and ran for the control room. Usually, lights would start coming on automatically, now that power had been restored. But, they weren't, and Eli could only think of one reason why.

"Oh, this doesn't look good." Eli said, speeding up as much as he dared. He didn't want to run into a wall after all. He made it to the control room moments later. He went to one of the consoles and pressed the power switch, nothing happened. He pressed it again, same result.

"Damn." Eli said as Colonel Young walked into the room.

"What's wrong?" Young asked, leaning against the wall.

"I can't get this terminal to turn on." Eli said, pressing the button again. This time it came to life. "Aha, there we go."

"Good, now find out what's wrong."

"That's what I'm doing..."

Eli fumbled around with the controls for a few more seconds and came up onto the power readings screen.

"Oh no... Oh no... This is very very bad." Eli said, stepping back from the terminal against the wall.

"What is it?" Colonel Young asked.

"Apparently, either our jump, or the pod activation took more power than expected." Eli said.

"How much time?" Young asked.

"Well, we're at below one percent of our power reserves; I'd say 6 hours or less. Only 4 hours till the pods die and so does everyone in them." Eli said.

"Then we get to the bridge, fly the ship to the nearest star." Young said.

"No, you don't get it. With this level of power reserves, we can't do anything. No Stargate, no sublight engines, no computer projection of Ginn, and soon... no life support."

"One crisis after another. Wasn't Destiny programmed to drop us out near the next planet with a Stargate on it?"

"Yes, but like I said, we can't use the Stargate." Eli said.

"We still have the shuttle." Young said. "We could fly down to the planet and see if we can find anything to supply us some extra power to make it to the star."

Eli started snapping, "That might just work... Let's get to the bridge; it'll be able to tell us where we are."

"I'm right behind you." Young said, and Eli took off at a sprint for the bridge. A few minutes later, they were there. Eli quickly keyed in the code and the bridge opened up. The first thing they saw as they stepped out onto it was the planet directly ahead of them.

"That's our planet." Said Eli amazed. He rushed down to the computer terminals and turned one on after some effort. The first thing he checked was the logs. "Oh boy, we're off schedule."

"What is it?" Young asked.

"That question is starting to frequent, anyways, according to these logs... apparently we dropped out of FTL about eighteen months ago. When our power reserves fell below five percent..." Eli said.

"Then why isn't the power at five percent now?"

"Because power stored in the drives degrades over time not being used, not to mention the small amount of power that is used to sustain us when we're in the stasis pods." Eli said. "Again, anyways, when we dropped out, Destiny used its maneuvering thrusters to put us on a drift course towards the nearest planet with a Stargate. We've been drifting ever since, since we're apparently within range now, it just woke us up..."

"I understand why it only woke up one pod, but why us and not someone else?"

"Because we were the last ones to enter a stasis pod. When the pods start releasing people, it does it in reverse chronological order. It just seems like it's releasing everyone at once because the process is so fast."

"Oh."

"Anyways, I'm going to scan the planet's surface, see if it detects anything useful for power generation..."

Alarms started going off on Eli's screen, it said, _Collision Alert._

"Oh no, that's not good." Eli said.

"What now?" Young asked, apparently agitated.

"We're on a collision course with the planet, we'll hit within approximately 8 hours..."

"One crisis after another..." He repeated.

A beep issued from the consoles.

"Haha! Yes." Eli said with elation.

"Finally some good news Eli?" Young asked.

"Yes, the computers have detected Naquadah on the surface of the planet, and I'm not talking about the Stargate."

"What's Naquadah doing there?"

"See, I've never told you this because it was never important before, but on very few planets, usually the first planet encountered in every galaxy, the seed ships drop Naquadah stores with the Stargate. The power generation of this ship, of course don't use Naquadah, but I can rig up a Naquadah generator and interface it with the Destiny's systems."

"Then we'll be able to crank up the engines?"

"Yup, we'll be able to turn them on and guide us to that star over there." Eli said. "It's also good we're leaving, it will buy the ships power reserves an extra four hours. That means that if we don't manage to get what we need in time, it won't matter anyways."

"That's good, let's go." Young said.

"Uh, one more thing." Eli said.

"What is it?" Young said.

"If you're considering the possibility of stopping here if we don't have enough time to save the Destiny... can it. If Destiny collides with the surface of the planet, the resulting explosion will be enough to cause a Nuclear winter... no life on the surface will survive, that includes us."

"I'll keep that in mind, now let's move out."

"Yes... sir..." Eli said and followed him to the shuttle bay.


	3. E1: Part 2: Small Talk

**Hiya guys, thanks for reviewing and here's another chapter.**

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><p><strong>Stargate Universe: Continuation<strong>

**Episode One: Abducted**

**Part 2: Small Talk**

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><p>Eli quickly sat down in the shuttle and activated all of the systems; Colonel Young sat down in the passenger seat.<p>

"Please keep your hands and feet inside of the vehicle at all times..." Eli said under his breath.

He pressed a few more buttons and all of the consoles came online.

"Okay, I'm running pre-flight checks... and a few integrity tests. No telling what happened when we were in the stasis pods." Eli said.

"Go ahead and do it Eli, just hurry. We don't have much time." Young said.

"You don't have to tell me twice..." Eli said. "Okay, pre-flight and integrity came back in the green. Initiating engines."

There was a whining as the engines turned on, then there was a screech and all the lights and screens went off as the engine did.

"What the hell happened?" Young asked in the darkness. Luckily light was coming through the shuttle's windshield.

"I don't know, all of my tests came back in the green." Eli said. "But by the sound of it, I'm guessing one of the capacitors overloaded and the system shut itself down before going into critical failure. One of the circuits must be damaged."

"Fix it."

"Okay, I'm on it." Eli said, turning back on the screens. They all came back to life simultaneously. "I'm running some power checks to see which circuits have been damaged."

A minute later a red flashing display of what looked like three wires came up.

"Oh no, this isn't good." Eli said.

"What's wrong?" Young asked.

"Want the good news, or the bad news?" Eli asked.

"Well, since I'm so used to hearing bad news, let's shake it up. Tell me the good news." Young said.

"Good news... I can fix it."

"So what's the bad news?"

"The circuits on the outside of the shuttle. I think it could be a meteorite that hit us when we were in proximity to the meteor planet to get the material we needed fix the pod..."

"But I thought we avoided any hits." Young said.

"We wouldn't have picked up the smaller ones on Destiny's sensors, and it must have been a pretty small one to damage those circuits." Eli said. "Also, there are some sections of the Destiny's hull where sensors are damaged, we wouldn't be able to detect we were hit unless we we're there. I mean, we only operate in a fraction of the entire ship..."

"Okay fine, how are we going to get to those circuits?" Young said.

"I have an idea, but you're not going to like it." Eli said.

"Yes, well I'm so notoriously hard to please." Young said. "Shoot away."

"First of all, you've said that before. Second of all, we're going to need space suits... and a tether." Eli said.

"What are you planning?" Young asked.

"Okay, I'm going to tether myself to the inside of the shuttle, then we're going to open the back door and I'm going to jump out, and spacewalk out onto the top of the shuttle. I'm going to re-route the power around the damaged circuits and we should be ready to go." Eli said.

"But I thought we couldn't get off of the ship without the engines?" Young said.

"No, we can just release from Destiny and use the shuttles maneuvering thrusters to drift a little away, and then we can enact my plan." Eli said.

"Okay, go get the space suits." Young said.

"Be right back." Eli said, and dashed off. He came back with the space suits a minute later. He threw one to Young. They got dressed quickly and silently.

"Okay, ready?" Eli asked as he pulled his helmet on.

"As I'll ever be." Young said.

"Okay, good, take the pilots seat." Eli said, getting up. Young got into it. "Now take us out with the maneuvering thrusters while I tether myself to the seat."

Eli wrapped the tether around his waist and around the chair seat. He walked to the back door as a clinking noise announced there disengaging off of Destiny, then a bunch of air shooting noises and the shuttle maneuvered itself away from Destiny.

"We're good Eli." Young said.

"Wish me luck." Eli said.

"Good luck Eli." Young said as he buckled himself into his seat.

"Now, I'm going to use the rush of air to get out of the shuttle." Eli said. He reached for the button to open the doors and hit it. Almost immediately, a small crack opened in the shuttles door and the air suddenly rushed out, Eli didn't have his mag boots on so the rush of air pulled him straight at the tiny crack and he slammed into it as the doors opened the rest of the way and he flew out.

"Ouch!" Eli said as flew out and the tether caught.

"Still okay out there Eli?" Young asked over the suit radio.

"Yea, I'm fine." Eli said. "I'm going to start pulling myself back towards the ship and re-route the power. The circuits are on the top."

"Got it." Young said as Eli began pulling himself back towards the ship. Young caught movement from the corner of his eye on the rope and saw it, the ropes was starting to unravel in a section. Young quickly unbelted himself and grabbed the rope just as it snapped.

"Ah!" Eli said as he was pulled away from the ship because of the energy that had been stored in the snapping rope. Young was being pulled back along the ship but just before it pulled him out of the shuttles back door, he activated his mag boots and he managed to stay in place.

"Don't worry Eli; I've got you, just hurry up." Young said, holding onto the rope with all his strength. Eli did as asked and proceeded to the top of the shuttle. He found the panel he was looking for a moment later. Now that Eli was on top of the ship, the rope slackened in Young's grip and he was okay again.

"Okay, I've found the panel I need to undo. Thankfully, these gloves on ancient space suits are a lot more form-fitting then Earth ones, so I should be able to do what I need to do rather easily." Eli said.

"Okay good, hurry up... we're kind of on a tight schedule." Young said.

"You don't need to tell me twice." Eli said.

Eli returned his focus to his current situation. He wrapped his fingers around the underside of the panel and pulled it off; it flew off into the darkness of space.

"Oops." He whispered to himself.

He looked inside and sparks from the damaged wiring flew into his face. He recoiled and almost lost his grip on the shuttle, but realized that the suit protected him from the sparks and rooted himself back in place. He found the wires that went to powering the engines.

"Okay, there are only a few more wires in this panel, and there the only ones I can use to re-route the power." Eli said. "From what I see here, and from what I've seen of the schematics, these look like the wires to most of the primary systems and some secondary's. I've got sensors, life support, artificial gravity, weapons, and our main power conduit. I've got to disable three of the systems I just told you about to re-route the power through their wiring and back into the engines."

"Well, what do you suggest?" Young asked.

"I'm thinking first that we can pull sensors, we can use the Destiny's sensors remotely if we need to. Second, Artificial Gravity isn't really that important. The Main Power Conduit is obviously out of the question, but I guess we can disable weapons. I don't think we'll need them anyway." Eli said.

"Okay, fine, do it." Young said.

Eli pulled the cables to the systems he intended to shut down, and began the complicated re-routing of the power through those systems conduits. First, he began by shutting down the sparking, and damaged, original cables that ran to the engines. When he was done with that, he started changing the power routes to the engines through the cables meant for the other systems. When he was done, he slid the wires into place and finished.

"Okay, we're good to go." Eli said. "Pull me in."

Young complied by pulling the tether to get Eli back into the shuttle. They then shut the doors, and as air returned to the inside of the shuttle, they pulled their helmets off.

"Good job Eli." Young said, now let's get back to the cockpit and get down there.

With artificial gravity disabled, they both maneuvered themselves back into the cockpit and strapped themselves in to the seats.

"Okay, I'm starting her up." Eli said, pressing the button to power the engines. There was a whining as the engines powered themselves up, and then, all the lights went off and they lost power. "Damn it, what are we going to do now?"

"Try... you know, kicking it." Young said.

"Oh, come on, that'll never work." Eli said.

"Humor me." Young said.

"Fine." Eli said, kicking the console as hard as he could. Suddenly, the lights came back on and Eli had full power again.

"Holy crap, it worked." Eli said.

"Sometimes even the most complicated problems have the simplest of solutions, now let's get going." Young said.

"Okay then. Just so you know, the artificial gravity is a part of the inertial dampening system. Not the big part, so we'll still be safe. But we'll feel our turns." Eli said. "I'm setting course for the planet, looks like we'll be there in like... an hour."

"Okay." Young said. Eli just kept piloting the ship.

A few minutes later, Eli was showing signs of agitation.

"So..." He said. "How you doing?"

"Eli, I just got out of a stasis pod after spending who knows how long in stasis AFTER I was just pulled out of it. I have a humongous headache, so... other than that, I guess I'm okay..." Young said.

"Hm... guess you're not really one for small talk." Eli said. They fell back into silence. Another few minutes passed. "Oh, come on! How can you bear staying so quiet? It makes me nervous."

"Well, I'm a soldier, trained to stay calm. Other than that, like you said, not really one for small talk." Young said.

"Hm, soldiers. You all act so macho and stuff, but, come on, your still human... you have to be afraid of SOMETHING."

"We're trained to not be afraid of anything. But your right, we are just necessarily trained to hide our fear." Young said. "Maybe I'll teach you sometime, although I doubt the torture training will even compare to what we've been through out here."

"Yea... well, even if you're not one for small talk, don't you have any questions about what we're going to do down there?" Eli asked.

"Soldiers are trained to suppress their curiosity." Young said.

"Humor me." Eli said.

"Fine, how long until we get there?" Young asked.

"About forty minutes."

"Okay, from what I've heard of Naquadah generators, they are notoriously hard to build. Took the SGC quite a while. How do you intend just to whip one up?"

"I found some ancient instructions in the database, should help me get one ready. I'm thinking like four hours maybe more. We'll have around six and a half once we land, and it'll only take a few minutes to get back to Destiny. If we're lucky, we should be able to just manage to pull Destiny up from the planet's surface and get to the star."

"Exactly how long were we in those stasis pods?"

"According to my calculations, about six years… as I said, three years, at _best_. Apparently, since we dropped out eighteen months ago, it took four and a half."

"Hm, is it really going to be that easy to interface it with Destiny's systems?"

"Well, Destiny is operating with old ancient tech. It's not designed to run with any specific power source, it's just that the power source Destiny uses is the only one capable of taking energy from stars. We'll have to switch off the Naquadah generators back to the normal Destiny power source right before we hit the star and drift the rest of the way."

"Sounds dangerous."

"This is different then everything else we do how?"

"Point taken."

Eli chuckled, "Any more questions?"

"Are we there yet?" Young asked.

"Wow, humor, didn't see that coming. Anyways, no, thirty more minutes."

"Then I'm out of questions." Young said.

"That's pleasant."


	4. E1: Part 3: Arrival

**Ah, for all interested in this story... I suggest you check out the story entitled Stargate Uprising on my profile. As my main character of that story will be crossing over into this one, along with a surprise character... hehehe. This surprise character is really one you wouldn't be able to wait for if I revealed him, so you're just going to have to wait. Well, there's actually 2 surprise characters crossing over, but who's counting? One of them is appearing in this chapter, so… :D**

**EDIT: OMG, I'm really starting to hate myself. This was worse than I thought! For some idiotic reason, I wrote it in the past and present tense at the same time. I actually had to read through this entire chapter three times before I finally finished switching it over to past tense.**

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><p><strong>Stargate Universe: Continuation<strong>

**Episode One: Abducted**

**Part 3: Arrival**

* * *

><p>The shuttle they were in was on its final approach with the planet below them. They were approaching the Stargate.<p>

"Hey, there it is!" Eli said, excited.

"Good work Eli." Young said. "Bring us down in that clearing over there."

Eli complied, bringing the shuttle down in a clearing near the Stargate. They both walked to the back of the shuttle as the engines shut down, they pressed the button and the back opened out onto the clearing they had landed in.

"The Stargate, and the Naquadah, are over there." Eli said.

"I can't really help you; tell me on the radio if you get into trouble. I'll watch the shuttle." Young said.

"God, why didn't we bring guns?" Eli asked.

"We didn't have enough time, and I think we both know it. Especially with that snag we hit when we tried to take off." Young said.

"Good point, okay, you're the commander. I'll be back when I'm done." Eli said, rushing off towards the Stargate.

He found the boxes of Naquadah right next to the Stargate.

"Now we're in business." Eli said, and grabbed one of the smaller metallic boxes. He grabbed his Kino remote and switched over to the instruction manual, and began working on changing the box in his hands into a Naquadah generator. It wouldn't be very powerful, but Eli knew it would be enough, and that was good enough for him. But as he began, he realized he would have to cannibalize a lot of the tech within the gate to get this thing into what he needed it to be.

He grabbed his radio and pulled the talk button, "Colonel Young, looks like I'm going to need your help after all. All of this Naquadah could be pretty useful on Destiny if we shipped it there. I'm going to dial Destiny and send these crates through, but I could use your help."

"Alright, I'm on my way." Young said.

Eli opened the dialer in the remote and dialed Destiny. The gate began spinning and locking in symbols and Colonel Young walked into the clearing with the Stargate in it.

"Hey Eli, I seem to remember that Stargate's can't dial something with the same coordinates. With Destiny so close to us, wouldn't it have the same coordinates with the Stargate?" Young asked as the Stargate locked its fifth chevron.

"Destiny is about double the size of Atlantis, that's big enough to have its own coordinates, and as far as the nine chevron address to it is concerned, a permanent address to dial if you have enough power." Eli said, picking up a crate from one end while Young hauled the other. The seventh chevron locked into place on the Stargate, but then the Stargate failed.

"What? That doesn't make any sense." Eli said.

"What is it?" Young asked.

"That's the sound Destiny makes when it's busy. Do you think...?" Eli asked.

"Earth." Young said. A voice issued from the radio, "Hello, this is Brigadier General John Sheppard on the planet Langara, is anyone out there?"

Young grabbed his radio and said, "Hello, this is Colonel Everett Young of the Destiny. We're glad to hear from you Earth, but you've reached us at a bad time. Can you please dial us back in forty-eight hours?"

"Well, Rodney said we can. Okay then, we'll dial you back in forty-eight hours. Don't be turning us away again." John said. The radio went dead.

"Haha!" Eli said. "They did it! They must have convinced the Langarans to let them dial in!"

"Don't get to happy yet Eli, we need to get this done. Dial Destiny and let's get these crates through." Young said.

"Right." Eli said, redialing Destiny. When the wormhole was finally established, they finally begin getting crates through. When they are done getting crates through, the gate shut down and Young returned to the shuttle. Eli returned to working on the generator, spurred forward by the thought of help from Earth.

Hours passed, and Eli finally finished.

"Colonel, I'm done. It's all ready to go, get the Shuttle ready, I'm coming." Eli said. "We only have thirty minutes until the collision, fire it up!"

"It's up and running Eli. Hurry up." Young responded, Eli grabbed the generator then sprinted for the shuttle. Seconds later he was belted into the passenger seat.

"Good idea buckling up Eli, we're about to hit some turbulence." Young said.

"No kidding." Eli said. The shuttle took off and speeded away for the Destiny.

Minutes later, they were again aboard the Destiny, and gravity returned to them.

"Whoa, that's a strange experience every time." Eli said. "Anyways, I estimate that I only have about ten minutes to hook this thing up before life support fails now that we're here, so... keep up if you can!"

Eli grabbed the generator and sprinted for the bridge. Young stayed close behind him.

"Eli, why are we going to the bridge?" Young asked.

"We can hook up the generator there; also it'll give Destiny time to pull up. We're going to be colliding with the planet in twenty minutes. We're now caught in the planet's gravity and pulling up with the limited power this generator can provide isn't going to be easy!" Eli said.

They arrived at the bridge and Eli quickly opened it up.

"Sorry, I need your chair." Eli said.

"Just do what you need to do Eli!" Young said. "I've said it before; it's not like I'm Captain Kirk..."

Eli knelt down at the bottom of the captain's chair and plugged in the Naquadah generator to a socket at the base. He sat down in the chair and hit some buttons.

"Damn, the Destiny isn't accepting the power." Eli said.

A timer activated where the FTL timer usually did, but it was purple instead.

"What does that mean?" Young asked.

"It means that we've got a minute to get this working or live support will fail." Eli said.

Eli got out of the chair and plugged the Generator into a different socket.

Thirty seconds remained on the clock.

Eli tried it again with the same result.

Fifteen seconds.

He attempted the same trick, and got the same result.

The life support failed.

"Eli, we just lost life support. We don't have much time before we can't breathe anymore." Young said.

"I've got that!" Eli said. "We've got to get to the control interface room, I've got to change the power coding from there."

They ran for the room, as they get closer and closer, their breathing got harsher and harsher, and the air became less clear. As they finally arrived at the room, they were stumbling from lack of clean air. Eli's vision was blurring, and just as he reached a terminal, he blacked out.

He arose seconds later to see that Colonel Young had shaken him awake. Eli concentrated enough to turn on the terminal and type in the few things he needed to do to effect the coding he needed to... and then he fell to the ground. Colonel Young again tried to awake him, but he failed, and collapsed himself.

Eli opened his eyes, he could breathe again. Colonel Young lay on the floor next to him, and arose as Eli did. He tapped Eli on the shoulder.

"Good work." He said. "How long have we been out?"

"I don't know, we need to get to the bridge and pull up... now." Eli said, they stood and ran for the bridge. As they arrived, they saw that they were already entering the re-entry phase. Eli sat down at a terminal and began typing as Colonel Young stood over him. "Hey, you can have your chair back."

"Thanks." Young said and sat down.

Eli continued pressing buttons and it didn't seem to be having any effect.

"Uh... Eli, you might want to pull up now." Young said as the ground closed in.

"I know! I'm trying; the power isn't getting to the engines yet. It's going to take a minute." Eli said.

"Eli, we don't have a minute!" Young said.

"I can't do it, it won't work." Eli said.

"Kick it Eli!" Young said.

"Oh come on, that can't possibly work again!" Eli said.

"Humor me!"

Eli kicked the terminal, and suddenly there was a noise as the engines turned on.

"Lucky!" Eli said. "That can't possibly have done anything, total coincidence."

"Does it matter? Pull up and get us out of here." Young said.

"Okay, I'm activating the maneuvering thrusters."

They were getting closer and closer to the ground, but the maneuvering thrusters had kicked in and the Destiny had started to right itself.

"We're too late! We're going to crash!" Eli yelled over the din of the maneuvering thrusters at maximum power. The ground disappeared from their view as the Destiny began skimming the treetops. Then, just as they were almost fully up, the Destiny hit the ground and the ship began to shake worse than if there were turbulence.

"Eli! Activate all of the maneuvering thrusters on the bottom of the ship!" Young yelled.

Eli did as asked and the Destiny began rising and the shaking stopped.

"Disable the rear ones and lean us up, then max out the engines and get us out of here." Young said.

Eli disabled the rear ones and they angled themselves towards the sky. Eli disabled the maneuvering thrusters and maxed out the engines, they hung in the sky for a moment, and then they jetted out of the planet's atmosphere and back into space.

"Yes! We did it!" Eli yelled in accomplishment. Young smiled and nodded.

"Get us to the star and let's get recharged, we have some people to meet in two days. We need the ship ready by then." Young said.

"Yes, sir!" Eli said and directed the Destiny towards the star. They approached and Eli increased their shields. It was a red dwarf, so they should be fine according to Eli's assumptions. Right before they reached the star, Eli disabled the Naquadah generator and enabled Destiny's power source. They drifted a bit, and Eli opened the collectors. They started collecting power from the star and the Destiny's engines came online.

A few minutes later Eli was saying, "We're at fifty percent and climbing. Looks like we're going to be okay."

"I'm going to go and wake all those people up now."

Eli flips around in his chair and yells, "NO" just as Young was about to leave the bridge.

"Never, ever, ever do anything that requires loads of power when we're recharging. The power will fluctuate and likely kill everyone that steps out." Eli said.

"Uh... oh, okay then. Radio to me when we're done collecting energy so I can let them out." Young said, leaving the bridge. Eli flipped back around in his chair to watch the spectacle unfolding around him, and of course relax for the first time since he woke up.


	5. E1: Part 4: Power Issues

**Thanks for all the feedback you've been giving me, and I hope you enjoy my latest chapter.**

* * *

><p><strong>Stargate Universe: Continuation<strong>

**Episode One: Abducted**

**Part 4: Power Issues**

* * *

><p>Eli sat in a seat on the bridge as the collectors closed and Destiny began to leave the star and assume an orbit around the planet. He grabbed the radio and said, "Okay Colonel, we're all done. You can begin the revival process now."<p>

Young was standing next to the terminal, "Got it, I'm starting the revival process now."

Eli scooted over to another terminal to check some readings, "Make sure to revive TJ first, and wait for her to recover from the effects of stasis. Staying in stasis for so long is bound to have caused some major negative medical effects on the occupants."

"Okay Eli, I'll revive TJ first." Young said, proceeding to the terminal in the hallway TJ was in. He stood in front of the terminal and hit a few buttons. As the ship began the process of reviving TJ, he walked over to her pod. There was a certain sucking noise and the cold air was taken out of the chamber and she was unfrozen. The pod then opened up, and TJ fell right out of the pod and into Colonel Young's arms. She wasn't breathing.

He grabbed his radio, "Eli! Get down here, she isn't breathing."

As he heard this Eli grabbed his radio, "Well, what are you waiting for? Apply CPR!"

"Uh... I don't… I don't know how." Young said. Something seemed to be off about him saying that. He couldn't quite place it, but it felt like there was something wrong with him.

Eli was running down a hallway and towards the stasis pod rooms.

"What! How could you not know how to apply CPR? Don't they teach you that in the military?" Eli yelled into the radio as he rushed down the hallway.

"Uh, I kinda missed that training session." Young said.

"Don't you watch TV?" Eli asked as he rounded a corner in the hallway.

"Look! Does it matter! If you're so knowledgeable about it, you tell me!" Colonel Young said.

"Ugh, fine." Eli said, stopping to catch his breath. "Put one hand on top of the other and put them right over the bottom of her chest."

"Okay, what next?" Young asked.

Eli began running again, "Press down hard fifteen times on that place, and use your weight. Make sure you do it at regular intervals."

There was a slight delay as Young did it; Eli was getting close to the chambers.

"Now what?" Young asked.

"Take two of the fingers of your right hand and plug her nose, open her mouth, put your mouth on hers, and breathe in, and then out with your mouth." Eli said, he ran into the chamber hallways and headed towards where TJ had been stored.

A minute later Young said, "Hey! Eli, it worked, she's breathing again."

Eli stopped and said, "Okay good... ran almost all the way there for nothing."

"Not quite... she stopped breathing again." Young said.

"Aw god." Eli said, standing back up and continuing his mad dash. He made it within seconds and knocked the Colonel out of the way. He then went back into his old training on this he remembered and applied CPR. A minute later, TJ was breathing cleanly. Eli was breathing quite hard, and he fell back and lay down. "That... was... close..."

"Eli, how do you know so much about this anyway?" Young asked.

He sat up a little as his breathing calmed and said, "Believe it or not, math boy used to be lifeguard boy."

"You're kidding? You don't look the type." Young said.

"Nope, I used to be a lifeguard, was a summer job. Made some good money to." Eli said.

"Eli, why did this happen?" Young asked.

"I don't know, could be that it has more negative effects on women. Or it could be that these stasis pods were prototypes and were only meant for short term resting. Or there could have been a fluctuation in the power system just as we opened her pod... lots of possibilities." Eli said.

"Find out, in the meantime I'm going to get TJ on a stretcher and get her to the med bay so she can rest." Young said.

"Yea, you do that. I'll be finding out what went wrong." Eli said, standing up and heading for the control interface room. He saw the colonel look at TJ with worry, Eli turned and said, "Don't worry Colonel, she'll be fine."

"Thanks Eli, now go." Young said, departing for the medical bay to get a stretcher. "Actually... I'm going to need a second pair of hands once I got the stretcher, so you should probably just stay here and watch her till I get back. Then you can find out what went wrong."

Something else felt wrong to Young about that as well. Why hadn't he noticed that in the first place? It was quite stupid of him in hindsight.

"Good, I've had just about enough of sprinting recently." Eli said.

"I know what you mean." Young said, and he departed.

Ten minutes later, Eli and Young were in the medical bay and TJ was resting. Young was gripping her hand.

Eli saw this gesture, and said, "You know, I know how you feel... if you ever need someone to talk to... It was in the Kino videos from Novus. I… know you cheated on your wife with her… I deleted it but…"

"I'm fine Eli." Young said. "Now go and figure out what went wrong, and how it could have went wrong."

Eli nodded, and as he left, he said, "The offer is always there."

Eli arrived at the control interface room minutes later, walking through the now lighted corridors of Destiny. He turned on one of the terminals and immediately bought up some power logs, thinking that the most likely problem was a fluctuation in the power grid. He found it almost immediately. Eli grabbed the radio.

"Okay, looks like I've found out how it happened, just not why." Eli said.

"What's the how?" Young asked.

"Just like I thought, there was a sudden fluctuation in the power grid right after we reached a certain power draw from the generators. It overloaded the stasis pod and dealt an electric shock more powerful than intended to TJ (this is how people in stasis are revived, a sudden, low power, electric shock)." Eli said.

"Why would that happen?" Young asked.

"There are a bunch of possibilities." Eli said. "It could be damaged wires, faulty equipment (it is over a million years old after all), or an effect from drawing power from the star. Take your pick."

"Why would drawing power from the star cause this to happen?"

"When we first take in power from a star, it is the smallest bit unstable for the first few hours, it usually doesn't affect operations, but it could have now. It has before in special occurrences, but nothing as serious as this. I'm going to run a test of the entire power grid on the ship to search for damaged wiring. I'm also going to go to check on the power generators... although I'm going to have to extend the life support area considering the generators are at the bottom of this section of the ship. We reside only in the top." Eli said. "Why didn't the ancients build elevators?"

"If neither of those things come back positive?" Young asked.

"Then, believe it or not, we got lucky. If it's either of the other two problems then I'm either going to go outside the ship and re-route the power or spend hours fixing any faulty equipment I can find." Eli said. "Anyways, I'm going to be unreachable for a little while. The radio doesn't penetrate very well through Destiny's walls, and the radiation near the power rooms will disrupt the radio signals."

"Radiation?" Young asked.

"Don't worry, not deadly." Eli said. "I'll have a report in a few hours."

"Good luck Eli." Young said. He couldn't fight the feeling that he was forgetting to ask something, but proceeded anyways. "Also, I'm pretty sure we're both starting to get hungry. We're going to need to go scavenge down on the planet soon."

"And since when has luck been our side? Anyways, don't we need Varro...? He's always been the best at this kind of stuff as long as he's been here. Greer would be good to just in-case Varro needs some back-up." Eli said.

"It's too risky; we can't have what happened to TJ happen again." Young said.

"I think I have a safe way." Eli said.

"How?" Young asked.

"I'll open two separate buffers near the stasis pod chambers. I'll have power slowly filter into these buffers, until they have enough to revive people from the pods. This will prevent the system from overloading because the power is not being taken all at once from the main power source." Eli said. "It'll take a while, but at least we can have someone go down the planet and get us something to eat."

"Do it." Young said.

"Okay, I'll start the process now. I'm going to need you to go down to the stasis chambers terminal and wait for the buffers to fill. Then use the stored power to activate the revival process. It'll be ready for you to activate in a half-hour or so." Eli said, tapping some keys on the computer to extend the life support area. He then grabbed his Kino remote and departed.

About three hours later, Eli was standing in front of the chambers for power generation. He pressed the button and stepped inside. There were five containers side by side that held the power; he started examining all of the wiring and equipment for problems. When he found none, he proceeded to keep following the equipment and wiring towards the top, where the bridge was.

* * *

><p><strong>Meanwhile... (Two and a half hours earlier)<strong>

* * *

><p>Young grasped TJ's hand one last time before leaving. Feeling her alive was enough for him. He knew the sting of lost love would eventually disappear from his heart, but that day was not today. Even though he felt a certain anger at TJ, he could never hate her, and he'd always feel an obligation to protect her. But, now it was time to go get Varro and Greer out of the stasis pods, and he would not let his thoughts distract him from his duty.<p>

He stood, and walked to the stasis chamber rooms. He found the buffers full and ready to go. At the press of a button, there was a sound as both Greer and Varro's pods opened. Groans issued as both stepped out of their pods.

"Sir...? I feel like I've just been rapped upside the head with a frying pan." Greer said. "What's going on? Why isn't everyone else getting out of their pods? Also, where is Eli?"

"Sergeant, it's a long story." Young said.

"I'd very much love to hear it." Varro said.

"You will, but there is something I need you to do first." Young said. "I revived you to so you could go and get some food, our food supplies are gone and we need someone to go and collect some. Sorry to be so immediate, but I'll explain it to you as you go through the gate and down to the planet below."

"What about the canned goods sir?" Greer asked.

"There's always that, but I'd rather not waste them. When everyone wakes up, they won't last very long so we need to save them." Young replied.

"Sounds good to me, sir." Greer said.

"We'll go down there and get some food." Varro said, they both departed.

"I'll explain over the radio." Young said after them as he proceeded back to the medical bay.


	6. E1: Part 5: Earth

**Stargate Universe: Continuation**

**Episode One: Abducted**

**Part 5: Earth**

* * *

><p>Greer and Varro snuck through the underbrush, creeping up on a strange alien animal that looked quite edible.<p>

"I'll distract him, get up on that ridge and take the shot." Varro said, continuing through the underbrush while Greer broke off and climbed the ridge silently. From here, he saw Varro slowing inching towards the animal on his stomach. He saw Varro grab a rock and throw it over its head where it created a noise so it looked away from Greer.

"Okay, do it." He whispered over the radio. Greer already had the animal in his sights, it started moving toward where the rock had smacked down and Greer led it. His index finger began squeezing the trigger... and then he fired. The bullet hit exactly in the animals head, and it was bought down immediately. It screeched in pain, as it was left alive by the shot. Varro grabbed his knife and jumped out from the underbrush. He stabbed the animal in the heart and blood darkened the ground.

Varro wiped the sweat from his eyes and looked up toward Greer, "Nice shot!" He yelled up.

Greer held down the talk button on his radio and said, "Thanks, now let's get it back to the ship along with those berries we found."

He saw Varro touch the talk button on his radio, and Varro said, "Got it, I'll start skinning it."

"Good luck with that one, I'm going to head back to the gate and see what I can find along the way." Greer said, starting to climb down from the ridge. "Meet you there."

"Don't eat anything." Varro says. "We need to test it for poisons."

"Yea, well… yea." Greer said. "Anyways, I'm not that stupid. I'll meet you back at the gate."

Varro said nothing more and began skinning the animal, which looked slightly like a deer, but of course Varro had never seen one so he wouldn't know.

**Meanwhile... back on Destiny**

Eli wiped the sweat from his forehead as he checked the last of the wires. He was now in the stasis chambers room. He grabbed his radio.

"Young, this is Eli." He said.

"Did you find anything?" He quickly replied.

"No, I couldn't find any faulty equipment." Eli said. "For everything being over a million years old it's in pretty good working condition."

"Well, okay. Get back to the control room and shrink the life support field again, we can't be burning power like this." Young said. "Also, did you get the results of that scan back?"

"The results of that scan should be waiting for me in the control room. Also, I'll do that." Eli said, starting walking back to the control interface room. "Hunger is my biggest problem right now."

"I just sent Greer and Varro down to the planet; they should be back any minute." Young said.

"Okay... good, I'll be in the control interface room. Tell me when they get back..." Eli said, buckling his radio back to his belt and heading for the control interface room. When he got there**, **he went to one of the terminals thinking, _Why didn't they put chairs for these terminals?_

He turned it on and checked the results of his scan, and groaned. He grabbed his radio.

"Uh, problem." Eli said.

"What is it now?" Young asked.

"That scan came back positive; there are fractured wires all over the hull. Some of them, according to Destiny, are scorched beyond what I can repair." Eli said. "There is also a lot of these fractured wires, there isn't any way I could re-route them all. We also can't keep using the buffer trick because I just found out that some of the stasis pod's wiring is damaged. We must have gotten lucky when we revived Greer and Varro."

"Damn, are you sure about this Eli?" Young asked.

"Yes, I'm sure..." Eli said. "Let's just hope Earth is going to get something to us that can help. Because this... is a disaster."

"Well, Eli, I want you to go use the communication stones to go back to Earth." Young said. "They need to know what's going on, and maybe you can make some suggestions on what to bring here to help effect these repairs."

"Well, there was a self-repair system on Destiny that we ran into a long time ago, but the system was scrapped because the power requirements far exceeded what Destiny was capable of producing." Eli said. "But I'll get right on it, just have some food ready when I get back."

"One more thing, how did this happen?"

"I have absolutely no idea. All I know is that Destiny was not in this condition when we jumped to FTL…"

"Alright… I'll get right on that food situation Eli, good luck." Young said.

"Got it, I'll be back." Eli said, buckling his radio back to his belt. He stepped out of the control room and began heading for the communication stones room. He soon got there, and turned on the device. He grabbed a stone, and put it on the device.

Suddenly, Eli was in an underground room in a military uniform. One of the men watching them pointed his gun at Eli and said, "Identification code!"

"Huh...? What? I don't have one." Eli said.

"Whoa... calm down there soldier, stand down." Said a voice from behind the soldier. The soldier turned and saluted him, "Yes, sir."

The soldier stepped away and a man with black hair and a name tag that read Sheppard stepped up.

"Sorry about that, these guys can be a little tense." He said. "We haven't heard from you in five years."

Eli blinked and the man stretched his hand towards Eli.

"Hi, Brigadier General John Sheppard."

Eli hesitantly grabbed the Generals hand and said, "Eli... Eli Wallace."

"Ah, the math whiz I heard about." Sheppard said.

"Well, no offense, but where's General O'Neill?" Eli asked.

"Last I heard he retired, and they finally let him." Sheppard said.

"He tried to retire before...?" Eli asked.

"Yup, he never could quite get there though."

They fell into silence for a second.

"Uh... well, I assume you're here for a reason. Let's get to the briefing room here and we can talk." John said. Eli followed him out of the room and towards the rectangle room where he had previously talked to General O'Neill in. They sat down across from each other. Eli started.

"Uh, didn't Colonel Young talk to you on the radio yesterday?" Eli asked.

"Yup, that would be me." John said.

"Okay, sorry. Not important." Eli said. "We're stuck. We've managed to awaken me, Colonel Young, Sergeant Greer, and Varro... but there are still so many more trapped in the chambers."

"Why haven't you awakened anyone else?" Sheppard asked.

"Okay, you know what. Let me start from the beginning." Eli said.

"Sounds good, fill me in and we can go from there." Sheppard said.

Eli told him the story quickly.

"...and now we have damaged cables all over the ship. Destiny has a prototype self-repair system, but the power requirements are enormous. More than Destiny can even have stored." Eli finished.

"Well, that won't be a problem much longer." Sheppard said. He called an Airman over.

"Let them in." He told the airman. The airman saluted and said, "Yes, sir!"

"Who's here?" Eli asked.

"One whom I believe you're familiar with and two who you are not." Sheppard said. "Just wait, you'll see."

The door opened, and three people walked in. One was Rodney McKay, one was a youth in his mid-twenties, and one was a person in his mid-thirties the first two sat down across from each other and next to either Sheppard or Eli, with the third sitting next to Rodney.

"As I said, I believe you're familiar with Doctor Rodney McKay." Sheppard said.

"Okay, he knows me, why introduce me?" Rodney asked. Sheppard ignored him and pointed to the youth (who was sitting next to Eli).

"This here is James Parker." Sheppard said.

"Hi." James said, and Eli shook hands with him replying in kind.

"This here, the last one, is Jonas Quinn." Sheppard said.

"Hello." He said.

"Hey." Eli said.

"Okay, now that we're all done with introductions..." Sheppard started. "Rodney, why don't you explain our plan?"

"Uh, sorry, but it's just I'm the one who made the discovery. Maybe I should explain it." James said.

"Ah, of course, you have the stage." Rodney said, putting both arms in the air towards James.

"Uh, yea, sorry about that. Just used to Rodney." Sheppard said.

"No problem..." James said. "Anyways, Eli, I'm sure you've heard about ZPM's?"

"Source of power generation right? The video I watched on the way to Icarus was a little vague." Eli said.

"Well, just to catch you up. A ZPM is a power generation device that works by creating an artificial region of sub-space and using the vacuum energy for power." James said. "This is called Zero Point Energy, because you can technically never run out of power this way, thus a ZPM is called a Zero Point Module...

"Anways, like a decade ago, before you even went to Icarus or knew anything about this, I found a way to refresh depleted ZPM's to full power." James said. "Of course, I'm not going to elaborate on the process, but it is very complex and can only be done every now and then. But, we have two full ZPM's that we are going to bring with us when we come to Destiny."

"Wait, you're coming to Destiny?" Eli asked.

"Yup, all of us here in this room... along with a multitude of supplies, Rodney's wife, and a bunch of experienced personnel are coming to Destiny." James said.

"Well... wow." Eli said.

"Yea, but that's not all. I found a way to dial within a star without causing a fatal overload." James said.

"That wasn't only you..." Rodney said.

"Okay, he has a point, _we_ did." James said.

"What? How?" Eli asked.

"The ZPM is the answer. We store the energy the star is absorbing in the artificial region of sub-space within the ZPM. This prevents the catastrophic overload." James said. "Once we get over there to Destiny, all of those people who don't want to stay there are coming home."

"But Destiny's power systems were never configured to be used with a ZPM." Eli said.

"Yea, it'll take us a week or two, but I and Rodney think we can do it." James said.

"But wait the overload from the damaged wiring aboard Destiny..." Eli said. "It will blow up the Stargate the second we try to dial."

"The ZPM will have enough power to operate Destiny's self-repair systems." Rodney said. "It will also let us release all of those people with stasis once the wiring is repaired."

"Of course, the ZPM we use for dialing within the star will be useless once we're done. This is why we are bringing two." James said.

"Just... wow..." Eli said.

"Anyways, now that you have all of this stuff under your belt..." Sheppard began. "You should probably return to Destiny and relay the good news to Colonel Young. Oh, and tell him he was given a promotion. He is now Brigadier General Everett Young due in light of his service."

"But I wanted to visit my mother first." Eli said.

"We'll tell her you're alive, but you have a lot of work to do back on Destiny. Also, according to you… you hadn't eaten in a day when you left Destiny." Sheppard said. "You should go back and fix that."

"Good point." Eli said. "Bye..."

Shep grabbed his radio and said, "Disconnect the device please."

Suddenly, Eli was back at Destiny and he jumped up in elation and ran to find Young...


	7. E1: Part 6: Illusion

**Stargate Universe: Continuation**

**Episode One: Abducted**

**Part 6: Illusion**

* * *

><p>Eli tripped once or twice on his mad dash for the med bay. He was so excited he didn't even use his radio. He stumbled inside a minute later.<p>

"Colonel, have I a lot to tell you." Eli said, TJ was still lying in the bed. "Uh... maybe we should go outside."

The Colonel followed Eli outside of the medical bay, and then to the observation deck.

"What is it Eli?" Young asked.

"First of all, you've been promoted "in light of your service". You are now Brigadier General Everett Young." Eli said.

"What?" Young said, his usual composure disrupted.

"Congratulations General." Was all Eli could say.

"Okay, for some reason I don't think that's the extent of your revelations Eli." Young said.

"Oh, believe me; I'm just getting started..." Eli said, and explained what happened.

"We're finally getting help from Earth, and oh what big help it is." Young said to himself.

"Yup, not to mention with that ZPM, we will finally be able to defend ourselves." Eli said. "If the drones even think of chasing us into this galaxy, they'll fail."

"I don't know about that... there are a lot of them." Young said.

"Yea, there is. But with that ZPM, our weapons will be able to strike harder. Our shields will be able to protect us better..." Eli said. "We're finally making some progress..."

"Yes, and we will have finally accomplished our primary mission as well. That's getting these people home." Young said.

"I know, up until now... it feels like we hadn't accomplished anything other than just surviving." Eli said. "Now... we'll finally be able to do more than that. We'll be able to do more than survive, we can help humanity. We can discover things like nobody else ever has."

"That was our primary objective of staying out here in the first place." Young said. "Will you stay Eli? Or will you go home?"

"Are you kidding? Ever since we got here... I've seen things no one else will ever see, done things no one else will ever do, I've come so far. Going home now would be taking a humongous step back." Eli said. "Also, knowing what I know... I can't just leave you all here alone. You guys need me, and you know it."

"Well, I'm glad to have you by my side Eli. I know you'll always have my back." Young said.

"Like you said back at "The Last Supper", we're a family now. Now, let's work on getting the rest of it back." Eli said.

"Sounds good to me." Young said. There was a sudden ring from Eli's Kino remote.

Eli retrieved it and looked at it.

"Ha, finally. Someone's dialing in from the planet below us." Eli said.

"That would be Varro and Greer, let's go." Young said.

"I am starving..." Eli said.

"Well you would be, none of us has eaten in five years."

So, they went down to the gate room to find the last chevron locking. Then the wormhole splashed out of the gate. Varro and Greer came through the event horizon a second later. Greer held two bags of fruit they had managed to scavenge and Varro had the meat inside of a big bag hanging around his neck.

"Well, look at that, it's our welcoming party." Greer said when he saw Eli and Young.

"Looks like you found something." Young said.

"We found a lot of things, but shouldn't we let the ship see what's poisonous and what's not first?" Greer asked.

No one commented on the unusual caution that Greer was showing (which really didn't fit his usual attitude).

"Well, give it to me and I'll get it scanned. Then we can eat it." Eli said.

"Don't worry about it, tell me where to set it down and we're good. You should probably come along to." Greer said, glancing at Varro.

"Got it… right behind you." Varro said. Eli explained what had happened on Earth on the way to the room where they scanned their food.

"Hell no, I couldn't leave you guys here. You'd die without me." Greer said.

"You're right about that." Eli said. "What about you Varro?"

"There's nothing for me back there. I... belong here." Varro said. "I don't think I ever belonged anywhere else."

Eli had no answer for that, so they kept going.

Young looked out the windows on the observation deck as he thought about what was going on. This was strange. Of course, they weren't in FTL at the moment. They were staying put until Earth dialed them again. They were probably busy preparing supplies and things to go through. Eli had said that before they left that they would dial in again as soon as possible. He stared out that window wrapped up in his thoughts for over an hour.

This was because Young had doubts about this detachment from Earth. Would this General Sheppard try and take his command? Is what their proposing even possible?

Not to mention Young's biggest doubt, that any of this was real. Ever since he and Eli had woken up, he had felt as if something was amidst. Like all of this was some kind of dream sequence from a very bad movie. Or rather, a nightmare sequence. The things that had happened up till now... they seemed as if they were either too good to be true, or had no rational explanation. It seemed strange that now would be the time for their lives to have taken such a drastic turn toward a positive future, even though their luck had always been down.

They had always just gotten by, just survived, and just been able to overcome the various problems they had. Young was starting to feel as if he was losing his mind, and his grip on reality. Was Destiny doing that thing again? Screwing with his mind to test him towards some greater purpose?

Not to mention, TJ... she still hadn't woken up. According to Eli she had only sustained a minor injury; shouldn't she have woken up by now? What if this was all a lie? What if his entire life had been a lie? Just like his love for TJ had been.

Young quickly turned those thoughts aside, he cast them from him. He couldn't afford to have a nervous breakdown now. Not when everyone on the ship needed him. He turned his attention to his nagging stomach.

"Eli, do you guys have that food ready yet?" He asked over the radio.

"Yea, we finished scanning it a half-hour ago, weren't you listening? We tried to get you to respond, but you wouldn't reply. I was about to come and check on you." Eli responded

"Uh, yea, sorry, I... forgot." Young replied.

"Anyways, Greer just finished cooking the meat they bought back from the planet, how long has it been since we last had some real food?" Eli asked.

"Okay, I'm on my way to the mess. I'll meet you there." Young said, still disturbed. He shook it off, and headed for the mess hall. But as he passed the armory, he felt very nervous for some reason. He stepped in and grabbed a pistol. He proceeded to shove it down the back of his pants instead of grabbing a waist holster.

When there he found Greer serving plates of the meat he had found, along with a cup of the fruits he had found on the planet.

"You won't believe this." Greer said.

"Believe what Sergeant?" Young asked.

"That this food is really good, unlike all the other foods we've eaten so far." Varro said.

Eli sat down over his plate and said, "If you say so."

He took a bite of the meat and immediately spit it out.

"Are you joking?" Eli said. "This tastes like spoiled Venison."

That was what finally put Young over the edge. Memories flashed through his mind.

_"...Shouldn't we let the ship see what's poisonous and what's not first?" _

The words of Sergeant Ronald Greer, courageous man who never backed down from any fight. Never exercised caution in any situation. Besides, Destiny had never had anything to test for poisons as long as he had been there. They used poison kits, which was the extent of it. The ship was not involved in the process at all.

The time their shuttle had crashed and Destiny couldn't dial as close as they were to the planet. Yet they had just done that here.

How Young hadn't known CPR, even though he could now recall applying it before.

Deer looking animal that tasted exactly like spoiled Venison, the opposite of what it should have tasted like. It was mistakes, inconsistencies, in what was starting to look like a gigantic simulation.

Young went for the pistol he had gotten from the armory on his way here.

"No it doesn't, it tastes great!" Greer said.

"Are you kidding? It tastes like crap!" Eli said, rinsing his mouth out with water. Which he spit out. "This water even tastes like crap, and water isn't supposed to taste like anything!"

When he tried to pull it out from his pants, parts of it got stuck. Young jerked at it a few more times with no avail.

"Eli, you have got to be joking. The water tastes exactly what it should taste like." Varro replied.

Finally, Young managed with one final jerk to get the pistol from his pants. He pointed the gun and Greer and Varro.

"Put your hands up!" Young shouted. "Eli, get behind me."

"General, what the hell are you doing?" Eli asked him.

"Just get behind me and I'll explain!" Young said.

Both Greer and Varro put their hands up.

"What's wrong sir?" Greer asked.

"Yea, is there something wrong, sir?" Varro asked.

"Yea, maybe it has to do with none of this being real!" Young shouted.

"Col-, General, what are you talking about?" Eli asked.

"Think Eli, haven't you noticed that ever since we left the stasis pod it's felt like we've been in some elaborate dream sequence?" Young asked.

"Now that I think about it... yea. What does that have to do with it?"

"Eli, there are so many mistakes in this. I can't believe you don't notice it." Young says. "Look, remember when we crashed in that shuttle and Riley... died?"

"Yea." Eli said.

"Destiny couldn't dial because it was too close to the planet." Young said. "Yet we managed to dial the one below us when we're right on top of it? Hell, you should have noticed this Eli!"

"How do you know I'm not a simulation like they are?" Eli asks.

"Because, first of all. I know you." Young says.

"That's not enough." Eli said.

"You also commented badly on the food they said was good. A mistake in whatever this is!" Young said. "Look, I know CPR! Yet for some reason I couldn't remember how to apply it! The food tastes like the opposite of what venison should taste like, why would some creature on the other side of the universe taste like rotten venison? Why would Greer here show caution he has never shown in the past without someone telling him to? None of this makes any sense, it can't be real!"

"Oh my god. I should have remembered that thing about dialing so close to. Not to mention, the seed ships never dropped Naquadah. All of this craziness to, none of it has an explanation." Eli said. "None of this is real... Well then, where the hell are we?"

"Is it possible were still in the pod?" Young asked.

"No, see, the computers on the pod are only meant to connect with Destiny for status updates, counters against catastrophic failure of the pods, makes sure we're still alive when we come out. They don't have anything to in their system to allow for the transfer of neural data except between the occupant and the storage device." Eli said. "Even if someone, or something, had managed to hack into Destiny's systems... they couldn't have done this. We have to be outside of the pods, there's no other explanation."

He looked toward the simulated Greer and Varro and yelled, "Okay! Enough games, tell us what the hell is going on."

Greer spoke, but when he spoke, the words came out in a distinctly female voice. With a sort of serpentine quality, "Ah, but since we are your captorsssss, what do you hope to accomplish by interrogating ussss? If you thinkssssss this issss a ssssimulation, then how would you be able to threaten ussss?"

"Like this!" Young said, and pulled the trigger. The end of the gun erupted in a spark and the sound happened... but nothing happened to the one he had shot at. Greer's body was morphing, his bodily features becoming more feminine, breasts emerging where there were none before. A golden uniform that moved with the body… thinner arms and legs, snakish red eyes, blue skin, a tail that looked like a dragon's. The transformation happened slowly, and a half-Greer half-crazy monster stood before them before long. It looked disgusting.

As Greer was changing, he... she... IT grabbed the end of his gun and twisted it out of Young's grip. His wrist snapped and he gasped in pain, falling to his knees.

The transformation complete, the woman that stood before Eli was most definitely alien. It looked like some alien/snake hybrid. Just not any kind of snake Eli had ever seen. Its feet had three toes with golden claws stretching from it. Its hands had thin but long fingers. Blue spikes that appeared to be made of a flexible material stretched from the serpentine head and the neck on it were slightly longer than humans. The other one was the same thing but green.

She had just turned her gaze upon him as Young kept trying to stand up, but was being pulled down by an invisible force. Eli felt something grab him, like hands that weren't actually there, that dragged him to the ground and onto his knees.

"Yessss," The monster before him said. "Now you fit into my vision of this event perfectly. Sorry for the deception, but it was necessary to find out what we needed from you."

"What... do... you... want with us?" Eli asked, just as Varro turned into a male version of the crazy monster standing before Eli.

"We are the onessss asssking the questionssss here." He said.

"Now the real interrogation begins." The female said.


	8. E1: Part 7: Escape

**Stargate Universe: Continuation**

**Episode One: Abducted**

**Part 7: Escape**

* * *

><p>Pain ripped through every nerve, muscle, and fiber of Eli's entire being. His vision flashed and he found himself floating within a tank of a clear substance that didn't quite feel like water. Bubbles flew past his vision and the light from the pod he was in scattered onto a dark metallic floor below him. Beyond that was pitch black.<p>

But then he returned to himself, or what he knew now was not, but the pain had been very real.

"Every time you try and ask us a question, and every time you do not answer one of ours... You will feel this." The female said in a slithering voice as a forked tongue escaped her mouth, punctuating every s sound with a hiss.

"E-Eli, don't listen to them. You can't let them know anything." Young said, clearly in pain. The male turned on him and reaching out his hand Young screamed as writhed on the floor until he fell silent.

"Co-Colonel!" Eli asked and rushed over to his side, checking his pulse. It still beat, faintly. But Eli didn't know if he could even rely on this reading.

"Now, where do you come from?" The female asked him.

"You seemed to already know where we came from earlier!" Eli yelled.

"We were able to glean but fractured information from your minds." She said, Eli screamed as she stuck her hand out at him and his crumpled in pain. "I thought I made it clear that I was asking the questions here."

"I'm not going to tell you anything." Eli said, and he burst into pain again. He didn't know how much longer he would be able to take this. Eli now lay on the floor on his stomach, barely holding onto consciousness. The alien grabbed his neck and lifted him up by it. She barely relaxed her grip enough for him to draw breath.

"I can do this for as long as I want." She said. "If you do not answer, then we will just break you until you do. We will take our leave, and you shall have time to think about it. Make the right choice, or you'll regret it."

They faded out of existence right on the spot. Eli got up on all fours and crawled over to Colonel Young, shaking him awake.

He groaned and asked, "Eli, did you tell them anything?"

"No, I didn't." Eli said weakly.

"What happened?"

"They tortured me to the brink of consciousness and then told me I would have time to think about my situation." Eli said, both of them sitting up. "They said that if I didn't answer them that they would break me until I did. Colonel... I can't hold up against that. I wasn't trained to resist torture. I mean, I'll do my best… but that was bad."

Eli was showing clear signs of panic.

"Eli, don't worry about it." Young said sympathetically. "We need to find a way to escape whatever this simulation is."

"But how?" Eli asked.

"When you were being tortured, did you mind flash to another place? I was in a pod, dark room. Couldn't see anything for the last five minutes or so. Couldn't move, but I think that was because my mind was still mostly connected to this place." Young said.

"Yea, I know what you're talking about. The same thing happened to me the first time they tortured me, I just flashed there for a moment though." Eli said.

"Well, what if we cause each other so much pain that we flash back there permanently?" Young asked.

"Are you crazy? There's no guarantee that would work!" Eli said, standing up and holding himself up with a hand on a table. "Anyways, I've just been tortured. I... I can't take that again so soon."

"Okay, but the longer we wait the less of an opportunity we have." Young said.

"I know... I know..." Eli said. "Just give me a minute to think..."

"Okay." Young said, and fell silent.

Eli was left alone with his thoughts. Pain was still pouring through his every muscle, but this was just its aftereffects. He couldn't really feel it due to the massive amount of adrenaline pumping through his system. He thought for a minute and finally came to a decision.

"Causing pain... won't work." Eli said.

"Why?" Young asked.

"We only flashed there that last time... there's only one other way I can think of to get out of here." Eli said, resigning himself.

"What?"

"Death, we have to kill ourselves."

He saw Young flinch, and think for a moment, then nod.

"If you think that's what'll work, then let's do it." Young said.

"You're... you're okay with this?" Eli asked in surprise.

"Well, we're not really alive here are we." Young said. "If we die here, then the only thing I can think of is that our minds would be either destroyed from the experience or we reappear in our pods. Then... well, we can make it up from there."

"You're absolutely fine with your mind being destroyed?" Eli asked.

"Eli, we can't allow this information to fall into enemy hands. These... things, whatever they are, obviously have no sympathy for other races. If they find out where Earth is..."

"But... we're galaxies upon galaxies away. There's no way they would be able to-"

"You don't know that Eli. You have no idea what they are capable of."

"Neither do you!" Eli yelled, losing his self-control. "I'm-I'm sorry."

"Don't worry about it, nothing we've done so far can even compare to this." Young said.

"I still... shouldn't burst out like that." Eli said. "You... you're right. We have to do it."

Eli picked a knife up off the table and pressed it against his wrist.

"No." Young said. Eli; relieved; removed the blade from its resting position.

"No what?" Eli asked.

"We have to kill ourselves, and everyone aboard." Young said.

"But why...? Greer and Varro basically proved that none of them are real." Eli said.

"They were probably released from whatever this is so that those two could replace them. Maybe their real life torture subjects, we can't know." Young said. "If the rest of them are real, then we can free all of them and we will stand a fighting chance."

"But... most of them are civilians. They can't fight." Eli said.

"Don't worry about it. Even civvies know how to fight for their life when they need to." Young said. "So Eli, how do you propose we blow up Destiny?"

"Um... Oh!" Eli said. "I can create a feedback loop in the power system. Eventually it'll build up so much power that it will have to release it. The entire ship will be decimated."

"Do it." Young said. Eli nodded, and ran to the bridge.

One hour later, Young and Eli sat across from each other with the disgusting alcohol they had managed to produce in wine glasses that had seemingly appeared from nowhere in their dishes.

"Another mistake." Young said smiling, as he took a swig along with Eli.

"You know this actually tastes kind of good." Eli said. There was a distant resounding explosion.

"Good luck Eli." Young said, finishing his drink.

"You to." Eli said as an explosion erupted from the wall and they died.

* * *

><p><em>Next Time on Stargate Universe<em>

_The Destiny crew is stranded aboard an alien ship with no apparent way back to Destiny. Will they manage to escape the clutches of this enemy before they're discovered? What will dying inside of a simulation do to Young and Eli? Find out in the next episode, Stargate Universe Continuation Episode Two: Bait and Switch._


	9. E2: Part 1: Switched

**Stargate Universe: Continuation**

**Episode Two: Bait and Switch**

**Part 1: Switched**

* * *

><p><em>Previously on Stargate Universe<strong><br>**_

_Eli and Young woke up after five years in stasis to find the ship with serious problems. Nonsensical problems with power were scattered about the ship and Eli tried to stay on top of them. Eli went back to Earth to find that they were sending help. But Young started to suspect that everything they were seeing was a lie, an elaborate simulation. He turned out to be right. Aliens were holding them hostage. To escape the simulation, Eli and Young killed themselves and everyone on board. What will happen next? Time to find out.  
><em>

* * *

><p>Eli's eyes flew open. He still remembered the explosion overtaking him and Young, and he shivered and blinked. He shook it off and looked around. Just like last time, he couldn't see far beyond his pod. This time though, he looked farther. He could see that there were pods on the other side to.<p>

He tried to move, and found that it was pretty difficult. It felt like he was being restrained by something. But as he did this, he suddenly noticed that his arms appeared to be a lot more hairy then he remembered… and muscular to. He looked down, and he also wondered why his… parts… didn't seem to be his either. He wondered at this for a moment before dismissing it and struggling against the field holding him.

It was difficult, but he finally managed to break through it and take a step forward. The liquid around him seemed to be oxygenated, so after he had done this he immediately fell through the liquid and to the bottom of the pod. His movement also wasn't restrained because of this. He was wearing a mask as well.

He took one step and was standing against the pod screen. He tried punching the screen, but it didn't even budge and pain shot through his wrist. He looked around the pod and found a panel. He pried it off with his hand and examined the wires. It wasn't of ancient design, and as such he had no idea what wires did what. Figuring that there had to be safety protocols; he pulled all of the wires until they snapped.

He had been right, the pod went right open and the liquid spilled out onto the floor. He pulled off the mask and breathed a few times. Air was blowing up from the bottom of the pod, which he guessed had been oxygenating the liquid. Eli had noticed it was a bit thicker than water, and must've been some kind of way to enhance the simulation.

As he stepped out onto the cold metal floor he shivered against the air. When he had done this, the pod shut behind him. He looked around into the darkness and could see nothing. He turned back to the pod and was about to open it again when he saw his reflection, and breathed out. The face he was looking in that reflection wasn't his, it was Colonel Young's.

"What… in… the…?" Eli started to wonder. But he stopped himself when he heard himself speaking in Young's voice. "Oh… crap…"

Knowing that this wasn't the time, he keyed open the pod and stepped back inside. He grabbed one of the lights mounted to the side of the pod and pulled it out. There were no wires attacked to it, and just as he had hoped, it didn't turn off.

He turned it over and found that a circle was there. He pressed down on the circle and it depressed inward a bit before he let go and a cylindrical rod came out. He grasped the rod and moved the light around.

"Alien flashlights… check…" Eli said. He stepped back out of the pod and flashed the light around. He was in a long hallway with no windows or definitive details. Pods filled with liquid and the crew of the destiny lined the hallway, although he tried to keep his eyes away from people's private areas and respect their privacy. He still blushed though.

Suddenly, he noticed someone else not far away that seemed to be struggling in their pod. He couldn't see the person clearly and ran over. Inside, to Eli's big surprise it was himself struggling against the field that had held him in place moments earlier. His eyes widened as he stared at himself, and the other him suddenly looked up and at Eli and his eyes widened to.

He quickly went to the pods terminal and tapped buttons. Unfortunately, the terminal was in a language he didn't recognize. Just as he thought this, he suddenly began to understand. The letters morphed into words he could read, and he quickly found the pods emergency shutdown feature and activated it.

The pod with the other him in it swung open. The person inside pulled off the mask and stepped out before assuming a stance like he wanted to fight.

"Who the hell are you?" The other Eli asked.

"I was about to ask you the same question…" Eli asked. Suddenly, the pod next to the other him closed and he looked at his reflection. His eyes widened yet again in surprise and he looked back at Eli.

"Eli…? Is that you…?" He asked.

"Colonel Young…?" Eli asked. Young nodded with Eli's chin.

"This is beyond weird, why are we in the wrong bodies?" Young asked. It was a little disconcerting to hear his own voice come out of that mouth.

"Colonel, I'm not sure, but I have a theory." Eli said. Young stopped his fighting stance and examined Eli from head to toe, which slightly embarrassed Eli even though he wasn't in his own body.

"Well then spit it out." Young said.

"I made precautions so this wouldn't happen, but it seems that it happened anyways." Eli said. "When we climbed into the pod together, it found our consciousness's as separate entities and stored them in the appropriate storage device. The problem is, it appears that when it came time to put them back, the computer got mixed up and put them in the wrong bodies."

"Oh… you had better be able to fix this…" Young said.

"I can just use the pods to do that sir, it shouldn't be a problem." Eli said.

"Well, I'm pretty sure we would need to be on Destiny to do that…" Young said. "It looks like we're somewhere else."

"I'm just worried that these people haven't woken up yet…"

"Well, they were in stasis when we were in the simulation. It's understandable that it would take a few moments for them to wake up…"

"Either way, we should get them out of these pods." Eli said.

"How'd you get me out?" Young asked.

"It's simple, press the small button on the top right of the terminal and then the bar along the left side. That will execute the emergency shutdown." Eli said.

"I'll take this side of the corridor, you take the other side." Young said.

"Got it." Eli said nodding.

They quickly split up and started releasing people from the pods one by one. Sometimes, they would find empty ones and have to skip over that pod. As they did this, people started waking up inside and outside the pods and panicking. Young kept going but shouted over the loud conversation.

"Remain calm!" He yelled. "We are no longer on Destiny and we've been taken prisoner by an Alien species! You have to be quiet or we'll probably be discovered! Eli, repeat that to everyone you get out of their pods."

"But you are Eli…" One person said.

"Not the time to explain." Young replied.

As he did this, they quieted down. They repeated the warnings to everyone he got out of their pods. Eventually, he reached Scott who nodded and joined the crowd as he told him. Young got out Chloe and TJ. Then Eli got Greer, Dr. Park, Volker, and Brody. Finally they got Rush and everyone else they could find.

When they had freed everyone within visual range, the about one hundred people on Destiny, Eli, Young, Scott, Greer, Rush, Brody, and Volker gathered at the head of the crowd.

"Would someone care to explain what the hell is going on?" Greer asked.

"Good, we thought you were torture subjects or something…" Eli said.

"What do you mean sir?" Greer asked.

"That's not me, it's Eli. I'm Colonel Young." Young said. Greer and Scott turned to him.

"What?" Scott asked.

"Look, we switched bodies and there isn't time to explain all of this. We need to escape and get back to Destiny." Young said.

"I agree, but there is the slight problem of not knowing where we are in the first place." Rush said.

"Not to mention naked in front of the whole rest of the crew…" Brody said.

"That's not our biggest issue." Young said. "We need to get out of here before the enemy discovers we've escaped from confinement."

"But _how _are we going to do that if we have no idea where we're going?" Rush asked.

"We also need our equipment back; we won't be able to put up a fight looking like this." Scott said.

"Well, for some reason I understand the alien language. I could hack into their computers and try to find a schematic." Eli said.

"I understood it to while I was putting in emergency overrides." Young said.

"Maybe everyone who participated in the simulation can then." Eli replied. "Either way, I'm going to do that now if that's okay with you."

"Go ahead." Young said. He turned to the crowd. "Everyone, I'm Colonel Young, me and Eli have switched bodies. I need you all to remain calm and quiet while Eli pulls up schematics so that we can find our way back to Destiny. No questions, there will be time for that later. Just get ready to follow me when I tell you."

A few minutes passed before Eli rejoined them.

"Okay, I managed to find a detailed schematic and sets of blueprints." Eli said. "We're on a ship… it's roughly three times the size of Destiny and heavily armed. There are no docking ports or clamps that would be compatible with Destiny, so it's safe to assume that we were brought over here on ships."

"If this ship is heavily armed, there is no way we'll be able to just fly out of here. We'd be shot down almost immediately." Rush said.

"That would be bad." Volker piped in.

"Well then we'll have to go the fire control and disable them." Eli said. "There's an armory not far from here, and it appears that whatever we were wearing was stored there to."

"Good, I think we could all use some clothes." Greer said.

"They also have a tractor beam." Eli said suppressing a grin. "Their using it to keep Destiny where it is, we'll have to disable that before we leave to. There are only two ways of taking it down though. Either we go to the bridge or someone goes and blows it up."

"But we weren't carrying any C4 on us when we went into the pods." Scott said.

"On the contrary, I always keep spare C4 in the back pouch of my uniform." Greer said.

"I could hug you." Eli said.

"Please don't…" Greer said.

"Fine, then we've got a plan." Young said. "First we'll all head for the Armory and suit up. We'll outfit all of the military personnel with their weapons and some of the civilians with the pistols the military personnel carried at all times. After that, we'll split up into three teams.

Scott will lead a team with Corporal Barnes, Lieutenant James, and some other guys along with Rush, Brody, Volker, and Eli to the Fire Control Center of this ship where you can all find a way to shut down their weapons.

Greer will go by himself to the tractor beam emitter and destroy it with C4.

Everyone else will head towards the ships docking bay and get back to Destiny once the weapons and tractor beam are disabled. Then you'll all regroup in the docking bay and get back to Destiny to. Once everyone is on-board, we'll jump into FTL. Anyone got a problem with that?"

"Yes." Brody said.

"Well suck it up." Young replied.

"Greer? Stealth?" Eli asked.

"I can do it when I want to." Greer said. "You can come and watch if you want."

"No…" Eli replied.

"Didn't think so." Greer said.

"Okay then, we've got a plan. Let's get moving." Young said.


	10. E2: Part 2: Under Fire

**Stargate Universe: Continuation**

**Episode Two: Bait and Switch**

**Part Two: Under Fire**

* * *

><p>Everyone was made aware of the plan they moved out to find the Armory. Just as Eli said, it was nearby, and luckily no one seemed to be around. Several cases of their clothes were scattered around, and everyone found and pulled out their own before dressing.<p>

Scott and the other military personnel quickly found alien weapons and showed them to Rush who test fired one.

"Triggers a bit far, but are they safe to use?" Scott asked.

"It should be fine. It seems to work by creating an energy sphere and firing it at high velocity at the target. This switch here controls whether the shot is lethal, or if the shot is charged with electricity causing a stunning effect." Rush said.

"I don't know about the rest of you, but I'm setting mine to kill." Greer said.

Everyone in the military was eventually outfitted, and the more responsible civilians in the group heading for the docking bay were given pistols and basic instruction on how to use them. The bulk of the military was given to the civilian group, but they were given a five-man team to make a run on the fire-control room. It consisted of Corporal Becker, Lieutenants Scott and James, and two Captains that Eli wasn't familiar with.

Eli quickly gave directions to each group's destination before rejoining his own.

"Okay everyone, keep it tight and stay with me. This is going to be a quick in and out. We don't know how fast these things will go down even against their own weapons so don't think you can fire and forget." Scott said. "We move out after everyone else has left."

"Greer's already gone." Eli said.

"What can you say, he has attitude." Brody said. Neither Volker nor Rush said anything in response, but Eli could notice that Volker's face every time Greer was mentioned. As if there was some kind of bad memory associated with the name. They went and sat around as they waited for the main group to leave, and Eli went to Volker's side.

"Is there something wrong Volker?" Eli asked.

"No… no I'm fine." He replied.

"I know you're lying. We've been working together long enough for me to tell. Now come on, tell me what's wrong."

Volker remained silent for a moment.

"It's… it's Doctor Park." Volker said.

"What about her? TJ said the chances of her regaining her sight are still good you know." Eli replied.

"That's not it." Volker said. He rested his chin on his fists.

"Wait a second; I think I remember Chloe mentioning something about her thinking that you liked her." Eli said. "Were they true after all?"

"Yea, they were… okay?" Volker said aggressively before standing up.

"Well, that's a good thing, why are you angry about it?" Eli asked. "I mean, I know I'm not the best person to talk to about that sort of stuff. But I'm here, and I'll offer what advice I can."

"It's Greer. He likes her to…" Volker said. "I haven't seen anything concrete saying their together you know, but I've seen it get darn close. They hooked up in Novus vids to. Rush… he said I was the good friend type, the one with the shoulder to cry on. I don't want to be that type."

"Why haven't you told her how you feel?" Eli asked.

"I went and I tried to tell her. But Greer was there and everything got really complicated." Volker said.

"You gave up." Eli said.

"Yea…"

Eli stood up and stood next to him.

"Well let me tell you that I've made the same mistake. I waited too long, and I let an opportunity slip out of my grasp…" He said. "Maybe there will be someone else later down the line, but you can't always count on that."

"You mean Chloe don't you?" Volker said. "When we first got here, I saw how you looked at her. But you waited too long and Scott got to her."

"Yea, I did like Chloe. I… actually think I still do. It also doesn't help when your girlfriend is a computer." Eli said. "Anyways, this isn't about me, it's about you. You need to take the chance. You need to tell her how you feel before it's too late. Even if it doesn't work, at least you know you tried."

"Thanks Eli, I'll remember that." Volker said. He smiled.

"Okay, we're ready to move out everyone. Like I said, keep it tight." Scott said. They all grouped up and stepped out of the Armory. The civilian group was already far away. They went the other way and cut through the pod hall. They walked down it for several minutes in complete silence.

Eventually they saw two of the serpentine species that Eli saw in the program ahead.

"This place is to exposed, fire!" Scott said. They raised their weapons and opened fire on the two ahead. They were pretty far ahead, and the shots flew wide allowing them to return fire. They used the minimal cover along the sides of the walls where the pods extended from the walls. The guards were obviously better trained in the use of the weapons then they were and were able to pin them down. "James, throw a grenade."

Lieutenant James grabbed a grenade from her hip and pulled the clip before throwing it at the Aliens. They actually examined the thing before it blew up in their faces and sent them flying.

"If they haven't already signaled an alert because of that, we're lucky." Scott said. Suddenly, his radio came to life.

"This is Colonel Young." He said in Eli's voice. There were the sounds of energy weapons being fired in the background. "We're under heavy fire engaging a group of alien guards in the server room. We're fine for now, there's good cover, but it may not be that way for long."

"This is Scott, keep us updated on your status. We just engaged two enemy guards ourselves. What's your status Greer?" Scott replied.

"This is Greer; I'm shutting my radio off for now. I'm about to enter a heavily occupied area, luckily their distracted because of the escape. I'll give you an update when I've achieved my objective. Greer out."

"This is Scott, copy that." Scott said.

"This is Young, copy that." Young said. "Scott, we should be keeping the guards too busy to focus on you and Greer, just keep moving and tell us when those weapons are offline."

"Yes sir, Scott out." He said. "Okay people, you heard the man, keep it moving. Eli, how long before we get out of this hallway?"

"Not long, there will be a turn in about two-hundred yards that should take us to a lift we can use to get the floor that Fire Control is on." He replied.

"Sounds good." Scott replied.

They proceeded along the hallway and took the turn where Eli said it would be. They encountered minimal engagement along the way; just a few guards that they managed to take out without incident, and proceeded through the dark hallways of the ship. When they could, they hid while enemy guards ran past them.

After plenty of moving, they finally managed to reach the lift.

"It's locked down." Eli said.

"Well I think we can all see that." Rush said.

"I was pointing it out to Scott." Eli replied.

"What, you think because you have big muscles now you can sass me?" Rush replied agitatedly.

"Enough! Just get it up and running." Scott replied.

"This is going to take a few minutes." Rush said. "Eli, pop that panel over there while I get this one then we'll examine them and switch places recording any similarities."

"Good idea, the controls for the lift are locked out so that's pretty much the only way." Eli said.

"Even then though, the wiring is completely different from anything we've seen. They don't wire like Humans and they don't wire like Ancients, we'll need a virtual interface we can use to get in." Brody said.

"Well he's the engineer; does anyone have a Kino remote?" Rush asked. They all shook their heads. "Bloody perfect."

"Hey, wait a second, I took one with me." Lieutenant James said handing it to him. "I forgot to put it down. Wouldn't it have been damaged when we went into stasis?"

"Unfortunately, yes, it won't turn on." Rush replied. He threw it to Brody. "Fix it while I and Eli try and guess which wires to cut."

"How long is this going to take?" Scott said.

"I don't know." Eli replied. "It could take hours."

"We don't have that long." Scott said.

"I know, just give us a half-an-hour at most." Eli answered.

"Okay everyone, looks like we're going to be sitting her awhile. Everyone spread out and take defensive positions. Call out any targets you see and wait for my permission to fire." Scott said.

* * *

><p><strong>Elsewhere…<strong>

* * *

><p>Greer slowly slipped by behind a large group of aliens as he ran through the route again in his mind. The way he was supposed to take was blocked off, and Eli hadn't given him any alternative routes. Knowing that he was going to have to go another way though, he slipped into another hallway and took a path around.<p>

He was lucky, and got back onto the path that Eli had given him before silently moving forward more. He pressed on as much as he could, but the endlessly repetitive looking halls of the ship weren't helping. Still, he eventually found a window and looked out to see Destiny floating below the ship and above a planet that reminded him of Earth.

Still, he didn't care much and continued to move.

* * *

><p><strong>Elsewhere…<strong>

* * *

><p>Young and the other people within the group pressed forward. The bulk of the group remained a room behind as they fought forward towards the docking area. In this body, Young was nowhere near as fast as before. He was sweating and exhausted already but kept the alien gun mounted to his shoulder and returned fire when there were breaks.<p>

One of his personnel threw him a canteen of water which his happily drunk.

"Not liking that body sir?" He asked.

"Not one bit Corporal." He replied.

* * *

><p><strong>Back with Eli…<strong>

* * *

><p>"Ha, got it." Brody said. He had gotten the Kino remote working just as Eli and Rush finished cutting all the wires.<p>

"Throw it to me." Rush said. Brody threw him the remote and he ran one of the wires into a port that was configured to decipher any kind of digital signals. The first few wires were for electricity, but he eventually keyed into a data stream and managed to hack the engine on this side of the elevator and unlock it to access from the controls. "Okay, I've got this side. Eli, come over here and work these wires back together while I get the engine on your side to cooperate."

"Got it." Eli said as they switched sides. Volker stood off to the side looking as if he felt left out.

A few guards had passed by since they began twenty minutes ago. But Scott and team had either managed to avoid their attention or kill them.

"Wait, do you hear that?" Corporal Becker said. Eli was tapping together wires and the sound was damping whatever he heard out.

"Eli, stop that for a second." Scott said. He complied and the sparking sounds stopped. They suddenly heard thumps. "Oh crap, that's footsteps. Hurry up back there! Someone's coming!"

As he said this, a large wave of enemy troops rounded the corner.

"Fire at will!" Scott said. They started firing into the midst of the crowd of enemy soldiers forcing them to take cover.

"There's too many of them sir! We're going to get overrun!" Lieutenant James said. Suddenly, one of the two captains was hit by returning fire and he yelled as he was shocked.

"Becker, grab Captain Langley and drag him onto the elevator." Scott yelled over the firing of weapons.

"Looks like their trying to capture us alive sir!" James said. Suddenly, she was hit and collapsed in a heap. Scott ran over and dragged her onto the elevator firing with one hand. Volker was hit with a stray shot as he tried to stay down.

"We just need a few more seconds!" Eli said working together the wires as fast as he could. Finally, he finished. "I'm done, how are you doing Rush?"

"Engines cooperating, just putting back together the wires." Rush said. "Give me one minute and we can go."

"You have thirty seconds." Scott said. Eli grabbed one of the guns from the downed Airmen and mounted it against his shoulder. He found it rather easy to do with Young's arms. He started firing and taking down one after the other. "Wow Eli, you're a natural."

"Kind of helps not to be in your own body!" He responded.

"Done!" Rush yelled. He ran to the panel and keyed in the floor they needed to go to. Suddenly, the engines on the elevator made a loud noise and it shot upwards. They were dragged down to their knees with the force before getting used to it and standing back up.

"Good work everyone…" Scott said.

"What about everyone they knocked out?" Eli asked.

"We're going to have to leave us here; they'll just slow us down." Rush said.

"We can't leave them, they'll be recaptured!" Eli replied.

"Then we leave the last two Airmen besides Lieutenant Scott here. You are pretty good with that gun, you and Scott should be able to handle anyone that comes after us and we can come back for them later." Rush said.

"Rush is right, and that's as good as any." Scott said. He activated his radio. "This is Scott; we're headed to the floor with the Fire Control room now. What's your status?"

"This is Young; we have a few men down. Luckily, their trying to capture us alive and they've only been stunned. We're only a few rooms away from the docking bay." Young replied.

"Okay, that's all good. Scott out." Scott said. "We're going to need to be fast here. They may need to take off as soon as they get on-board a vessel. We need the guns down before then."

"Yes sir." Eli said.

"Wow, it is incredibly disconcerting to hear that from my Commanding Officer's mouth." Scott said.

"Well, if you like, drop and give me twenty." Eli said grinning.

"If you like, you can take _this _twenty…" Scott said handing him a twenty dollar bill. "…and shove it up your ass."


End file.
